Monday, February 4, 2008

assignment 3

interview three people about their ideas of desert. tell them you are going to write their thoughts up publicly. (You might like to write it on your choice of "Lenten fabric" from assignment one). Blog or email your notes from the interview.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Besides the obvious associations—hot, dry, sunny—people I spoke with used words like “desolate,” “boring,” “unsettling,” and even “dirty” to describe deserts. It seems that most people think of the desert as a nice place for a brief visit. Almost everyone told me that the longest they would want to stay in the desert was a few days, or at most a week. People seem to think that the scenery and surroundings in a desert would be interesting to observe and explore, but not for very long. I think that is the striking thing about Jesus’ time in the wilderness—a day or two might be a welcome respite from work and ordinary life, a week would be a personal challenge, and anything more than that is simply unimaginable. The first time I looked at Si Smith’s 40 drawings, that was what grabbed my attention. They just go on and on and on. Forty days with no work, no home, no human company. If I was the one spending 40 days in the wilderness, I would have to either get very in tune with myself and my God, or else I think I would quite literally lose my mind.

MM said...

I enjoyed reading your blog, and I definitely agree with your conclusions! Would be interested in seeing the drawings you referred to... Will you be posting blogs after other assignments? What a remarkable way to do some self examination!

Mary Martha

Anonymous said...

What is the desert like?
I managed to talk to a couple of people who had spent time in the desert. One lived in Western Australia as a child while her father worked on the pipeline which was the only water supply to towns. She remembered the locals laughing at them trying to grow plants in the ground. The extreme conditions of 45 degree heat and cyclones. Plagues of frogs that came out when it rained like worms do here. And when it did occasionally rain everyone rushing outside to wash their hair and collect what water they could. It reminded me of the Simon Smith images 18 &19. The houses were on stilts for air flow and to avoid the nasty bugs and snakes that hide in whatever shade there is.

The second person had been in the desert in Peru where the Nazca lines are (see here). They were possibly made by people during worship of mountains and other sources of water – prizing what was most scarce and needed by them. It’s so dry that excavated graves have bodies that decompose so slowly that there was still hair on them after thousands of years. He remembers driving for days just a few kms in from the coast with nothing to see in any direction and coming across a tiny community selling fire wood. People who chose to eek out a living instead of moving to the coast.

My six year old said on Go Diego this morning she learnt that Iguanas sleep in little holes in the sand during winter. So there are seasons in the desert too – I think some are cold at times too but the common factor is dry dry dry. How precious is one drop of water when we are dry dry dry.

Anonymous said...

My first person: A dry barren place - hot - very little or no vegetation - lonely - no-one else there.

Person #2: There can be a desert of the spirit - is this what we experience? A desolation and isolation that we can find ourselves in can be beautiful. We can find things there that we will not find elsewhere.

Person #3: Hot, dry, thirsty, no life, cold at night; snakes, sand, wind, sandstorms, sand dunes, barren

Anonymous said...

JB writes:

Two of the three people I interviewed saw a desert as a place devoid of life, barren and arid. Both mentioned the lack of water meaning that nothing grows until the rain comes when the desert bursts forth into life and colour

The other person spoke of a desert place being where there is no escape from "me" and that brings the realisation that there is more than just her in the big out there with its dangers and threats. But also there are opportunities as the mystery of life unfolds to become aware of things that are not usually noticed and this allows opportunities to appreciate what is most important and to experience vulnerability